The present invention relates to a new and distinct cultivar of Lonicera caerulea ssp. emphyllocalyx and will be referred to hereafter by its cultivar name, ‘Keiko’. ‘Keiko’ is a new cultivar of Japanese blue honeysuckle berry, also known as Japanese haskap, a plant grown for its fruit that is marketed as fresh and frozen fruit and processed food products.
The new Invention arose from an ongoing controlled breeding program that initiated in 2001 in Corvallis, Oreg. with the planting of seeds collected in 2000 from several berry farms in Hokkaido, Japan. The objectives of the breeding program are to develop superior cultivars of this early ripening berry plant that could be grown in moderate to colder climates combined with an upright spreading plant habit and fruit that were large in size, firm, easy to pick, good tasting, and with a high yield rate.
This new Japanese haskap cultivar, ‘Keiko’, arose from seed collected from open pollination of an unnamed Japanese haskap plant designated as “selection #8” that was growing on a farm in Bibai, Japan. ‘Keiko’ was selected in Corvallis, Oreg. as a single unique plant (selection #22-26) in 2004 from the population of resulting seedlings.
Asexual propagation of the new cultivar was first accomplished by the Inventor by hardwood stem cuttings in 2004 in Corvallis, Oreg. Asexual propagation by hardwood and softwood cuttings has determined that the characteristics of the new cultivar are stable and are reproduced true to type in successive generations.